Jamie Oliver abused after launch of The Naked Chef: "I got chased and punched a few times"

Jamie Oliver may be one of the world’s most famous chefs but his climb to fame wasn’t without difficulty.

The healthy eating advocate, who now has a net worth of US$235 million, has revealed that he received a lot of hate after his first show aired.

In an interview with The Sun, Oliver said men were abusive toward him after The Naked Chef series aired because he was showing wives and girlfriends that men were able to cook.

Oliver said: “When men stopped thinking of me as the competition — after about two-and-a-half years — men would stop wanting to punch me.”

“I didn’t realise it was political at the time, but 20 years ago women, en masse, were going to work.

“Women and men, husbands, boyfriends were coming home from work, they’d sit down at six o’clock and go ‘Ahh, f***ing tired’, and men across Britain would look at their wives and go ‘What’s for dinner?’ And they weren’t having it. And rightfully so.

“They had both done a 12-hour day, their feet both hurt, they’re both contributing to the rent — so I didn’t know it because I was too young and stupid, and I was just enjoying life way too much — but women around Britain made me succeed.”

Jamie Oliver explained that the backlash was not only verbal but also physical.

“And then that’s why, if you look back in the papers and study it, men hated me for two years, and I got chased and punched a few times, I had loads of abuse. Men f***ing hated me.”

Oliver said when the series aired he looked “about one-year-old – almost like a foetus”, which inspired women to tell their parents to cook more.

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